Sunday Splash Page #32

"FATALITY", in Annihilation #6, by Keith Giffen (writer), Andrea DiVito (artist), Laura Villari (color artist), Cory Petit (letterer)

My scanner is just a little too small for double-page splashes, so I didn't quite get all of "This is for the Nova Corps!". There's a couple of single-page splashes in this issue alone I like better. Like the one where we see the Kree can actually shoot their buildings like surface-to-air missiles. But after the page I used for last week's entry, I figured I needed to show the rematch between Nova and Annihilus, and this was the only option.

Anyway, after the mixed bag of the four lead-in mini-series, we got to the main show of what is still my favorite Event Comic. Giffen is good here at ramping up the stakes. Each time the resistance seems like they might be be turning a corner, disaster strikes. When Firelord captures one of Annihilus' admirals (also one of his queens), they learn Annihilus and Thanos have teamed up, and made a deal with two Elder Beings to take down Galactus and the Silver Surfer. Things are bad enough Nova has to not only rely on Ronan as an ally, but Ronan's an essential leader as someone who actually knows something about warfare for the Kree units. And Ronan willingly (if not happily) works with Super-Skrull later on.

DiVito and Villari's artwork is bright and clean. It's not a gritty, bloody war book. There are a few pages that sell the injuries as more severe, but a lot of times injured translates to, "outfit torn, maybe some scratches". Even in scenes like above, I'd describe my reaction more as, "Oh, wow" than "Ouch", if that makes sense. It's a very pretty book, with a lot of very cool, big scenes in it. Most of the characters involved get moments to be awesome or make a key contribution. It made for a nice escape from the dreary mess that was Millar's Civil War.